Officials definitely let Indiana get away with a lot. Lisa's got to get an early T — partly to send a message to refs, partly to send a message to her team. You just have to get in the ear of the lead official and let them know that if this is how the game is going to be played, that her team is going to match physicality with physicality.
Refs at that point have a decision to make: clean it up ASAP, or risk the game getting really, really ugly.
Players at that point have a decision to make: match physicality, or keep being only on the receiving end.
There's one call that was an absolute killer, just an awful call. Iowa has cut it to 8. There's a little momentum, plus some actual game pressure is now sneaking in on Indiana. 3:40 or so to go. Indiana ball. Not much going on Indiana's possession, then Scalia decides to right hand drive on the right side. She just sort of throws her body into her defender — honestly can't remember who it was — Scalia had zero advantage, defender in pefectly legal position, defender didn't reach or do anything to bail Scalia out, Scalia flops, whistle. Scalia was about to force a bad shot, likely miss, Iowa had rebounding position. Whistle. Scalia makes 2, Indiana back up 10. I think Iowa doesn't score next possession, Indiana comes down and hits a 3, now up 13 with less than 3 mins to go.
Iowa gets a stop there and scores, 3 mins to go down 5 or 6? Now Indiana, for the first time all game, really, has very real game pressure.
Frustrating loss. But this is as clear a message as Iowa is going to get that they're going to have to figure out how to play against this type of thing.
